Signaling for Help is a Crucial Hunting Skill That Requires Practice

Let's hope you never need to signal for help in an emergency, but if the situation should arise, you want to know that you can do it efficiently. You should practice marking for help before you are stuck out in the wild alone.

It is a great idea to keep with you, at all times, A mobile phone or two-way radio for communication whenever possible. There are times when these items will not work. In these situations, you should have a whistle useful to alert others to your location. Blowing a whistle makes a lot of noisy rackets that will undoubtedly get the attention of someone in the area. Make sure a noise is in your hunting kit.

If these types of signalling do not work, you must use visual signals to entice others to you. A strobe light can be a smart way to get attention. Even a flashlight can be used in an emergency. Flares and smoke signals can bring the help to you quickly. You can also try your hand at using a signal mirror.

The key to visual signals for help is location, select the site wisely. It can make the difference between hunting and death.

Signaling is best when performed near your shelter in a section of the clearing. Try an open field, lakeshore, or hilltop. The area must have high visibility for good results.

Indicate your stress by using the S.O.S. transmission. It is internationally known to imply someone is in trouble and needs help. Communication this to others by creating three short signals, followed by three long signals, then three short signals.

Transmission for help during the day with mirrors or by using rocks and logs. Make the area visible by air and by floor. Spell out the word Help, for instance in a clearing with logs. If the search team is flying overhead, this will certainly get their attention, bringing the help to you rapidly.

The search team will be looking near the planned route for you. This is why it is important to stay near the scheduled area whenever possible. Venturing off looking for help may not be the best plan of action.

By night time, your open fire may be visible. Make use of a strobe light or flashlight to signal for help. If the three short and long signals are confusing, try indicating the same thing three times in a row. Repeat this step.

Make three fires in a row or triangle shape. This is another international signal for help. The smoke from the fire is visible for miles during the day and highly visible by night.

Being aware of distress signals and knowing how to use flares or mirrors can send help in your direction when you need it. Practice these outdoor hunting skills before an emergency arrives to allow the best results in the event of a hunting situation. Hand mirrors for signalling, for example, are Not the most accessible gadgets to master. Pair up with a friend and see if the two of you can send signals to each other using the mirrors. This activity is fun and practices a hunting skill, too.

Letting someone know you are in trouble is the best way to get help. Fire, flares, and S.O.S. signals are excellent ways to let others know you are in distress. Mirrors and other signalling techniques take practice. Try your hand at the skill before you are in a hunting situation.

Stinky Animals

We all are animals, right? Mammals? Sure we are. We all have fur, a self-regulating body temperature - and our females have mammary glands (that’s boobs for those of you who don’t usually think in more precise anatomical terms). Besides, if we aren’t plants - with a few exceptions that I’m sure are coming to mind out there - then we've got to be animals. That’s the only other choice.

So if we’re closely related to critters like dogs, cats, lions, tigers and bears, doesn’t it make sense that we showed up here on planet earth with at least a few of the same type of traits? Animals are naturally assembled with characteristics that will permit them to survive in less than ideal environments - and do all those things it takes to keep their species alive for thousands of years. Yeah, I know - that is unless we humans start putzing with their environment and remove all chances of their hunting. That’s happened entirely too much.

But apart from that, if left to their own devices animals do a darned good job of hanging in there (surviving) at least long enough to do the propagation thing (make more of their kind of animals). Since we’re animals, that applies to us too. Experts agree that we humans appeared here on earth pre-wired and pre-programmed to do those things it takes for us to survive - not only as individuals but also as a species. That makes sense. These animal instincts have allowed us to grow from an indeterminate handful of Homo sapiens to a populace of over six billion people.

For the most part, our hunting instincts serve us well. Threats to our hunting (perceived or real) however, have occasionally prompted us to take drastic steps to protect ourselves - both as individuals and as groups. I’m not necessarily saying “bad” levels - just beyond the ones we usually associate with everyday living. Such as? Such as moving from an area of town where there were a couple of drug busts to the perceived safety of a friendly secure gated community. Oh yeah, then there’s installation of the security alarm system and the purchase of a 9mm handgun as backup. How about a big dog and pepper spray - just in case? Classes in self-defence is probably not a bad investment either come to think of it. And maybe bars on the windows, too. And… well, you get the idea. An instinct for self (and perhaps family, also) preservation coupled with a touch of fear can quickly lead us down a path we would not regularly have taken.

Our hunting instincts commonly push beyond our desire for natural hunting. Most of us have developed over the years, an image of ourselves that maintains us well above the rank of second-class pond scum. We have developed a level of self-esteem that reinforces our worth as a valuable human being. Any threat to either our self-worth - or to those things we have placed high on our priority lists such as family, property, freedom of expression or religious beliefs - will cause us to react. Take away any one of our priorities such as family, values or religious beliefs and our identity begins to crumble. Is it any wonder we get an adrenaline surge?

So where have these basic hunting instincts and surges taken us? In response to playground threats, the belligerent words came first, usually followed closely by the pushing and shoving match. It might have started out as a personal safety issue (damn Big Bully anyway!) - or a grabbed food or drink - or a comment on our appearance, mother’s breed or father’s anti-freeze level.
As adults, our instinctive reactions to threats have resulted in everything from verbal confrontations to murder. The triggers? A questionable “look”, verbal comments about our ancestry, appearance, companions, mannerisms, opinions, vehicle, driving ability - the list is endless.

On the job, threats (real or perceived) to our job security or position that could impact our income or self-esteem have created epidemics of “turf trauma”. This, in turn, has resulted in hoarding (and zealously guarding) of information, over-accumulation of materials and equipment and bulging inefficient departments. And yes, manipulation, backstabbing and fiscal shenanigans along with the necessary lying, cheating and stealing. All in the name of hunting.

It doesn’t take a vivid imagination to see how our hunting instincts apply to larger groups of people. In colleges, these instincts lead to predictable conflicts among the different groups - the jocks, brains, gothic, cowboys, etc.

The hunting instinct leads our children into the perceived security of gangs - which of course, leads to the inevitable conflicts as these gangs then fight to protect their turf, status and self-esteem. Our hunting instincts have produced battles between tribes, conflicts between religions and races, and wars between nations.

It doesn’t take much imagination either, to figure out that our chances of hunting either as individuals or as a group of people, increase dramatically if we’re the tall dog on the block. People (or groups) in a dominant position can exert more influence over others and are therefore more likely to survive. Is there any wonder that there’s a mad scramble for the top spot?

I think it’s essential for us to understand that a lot of the weird stuff that we see happening around us is not just the result of screwed up, warped or evil individuals or groups of people. Sometimes - sure. But a bunch of the time, the underlying motivation to these situations can be traced right back to our foundation animal instincts - and mainly our instinct for hunting.

Well dang, here we are at the end of the article, and we didn’t even have a chance to talk about sex. Maybe later - or should I just let you use your imagination on this one? FantasyLand anyone…?

Hunting Skills

Hunting skills just for backpacking? Why not? For ultralight backpackers like myself, skills replace gear, and therefore weight. If you spend any time in the wilderness, it also just feels good to know you can deal with whatever comes up.

Hunting means staying warm and dry, hydrated, uninjured, and finding your way out of the wilderness. Of course, eating is excellent too, but not crucial if the situation is just for a few days. Here are some Hunting skills you can learn quickly.

Easy Hunting Skills

1. Put dried moss or milkweed fuzz in your pocket as you walk, so you'll have dry fuel to start a fire, just in case it's raining later. Cattail fuzz is practical too, and you will test out different materials.
2. If it appears and tastes just like blueberry, strawberry, or raspberry - it is. There is absolutely no berry in THE UNITED STATES that seems like blueberry, strawberry, or raspberry, and can harm you in one taste. Have a feeling, and spit it out entirely if it does not taste right.
3. Make a pile of dried out leaves and deceased lawn to keep warm in an emergency. I've slept warmly without a blanket, in below-freezing weather, in a pile of dried out grass.
4. Put a stay upright in the bottom, and mark the end of the shadow. Tag it again quarter-hour later. Scrape a line between your first and second marks, and it'll be directed east. Techniques such as this can help you save whenever your compass is lost.
5. Clouds form in the Rocky Mountains right before the evening storms in the summer season. Hikers are regularly wiped out by lightning in Colorado. Birds often soar lower before storms. Understanding how to browse the sky and the behaviour of pets will keep you out of trouble.
6. The most significant wilderness killer is hypothermia, and getting damp is the largest cause. Enter the habit of viewing for ledges or large fir trees and shrubs to stand under when you believe that rainfall may be arriving. Understanding how to stay dry out is one of the most critical Hunting skills.
7. To remain warmer, rest with your mind slightly downhill. It requires some used to, but it works.
8. Enter the habit of filling up water containers every chance you get, and you will not have such trouble with any long dried out stretches of the path. The miracles of water the last of your drinking water before you fill up the containers too.
9. Break a "blister" on the trunk of a little spruce or fir tree, and you will use the sap that oozes out as an excellent antiseptic dressing for small slashes. Also, it can be utilised to begin a fire and can burn when damp.
10. Bark from a white birch tree will most likely light even though wet. Within a jam, you can also utilise it as a paper alternative if you want to leave an email in a crisis.

The above mentioned are only a few tips and techniques you can just learn. You can find many more, plus they can make backpacking not only safer but more interesting. Will you want to practice a couple of- the Hunting skills?